Leave This Town
by GeekintheJeep
Summary: Blaine's excited to start his new life in New York with Kurt. Of course he is. That doesn't mean it's easy to part with all of the memories he's leaving behind. (A 5x13 reaction fic. Klaine.)


**A 5x13 reaction one-shot. Title from "September" by Daughtry. Also posted to my Tumblr (geekinthejeep).**

**Thanks to Klaineitupanotch on Tumblr for beta'ing!**

* * *

It's quiet in his room.

He can hear the floor creaking as Kurt flits around the room, running everything over with a duster one last time ("I promise, Kurt, mom won't care if there's a little bit of dust left lying around." "But _I'll_ care, Blaine."), but it's in stark contrast to the insanity of just an hour before; Sam and Tina laughing and shouting as they tossed his belongings back and forth at each other and into boxes, Kurt taking more care to keep everything orderly as they packed his entire room away into a small pile of boxes in the corner. Sam and Tina had cleared out just as the sun started to set outside his window, Sam with a hug and a reassurance that he would see him in New York in just a few weeks time, and Tina with a promise that she would be by in the morning to see him off as she blinked away tears that had already ruined her makeup once today.

He sits down on the floor in the middle of his empty room and sighs.

That's his entire life, right there in those boxes. Eight boxes was all it took to pack away eighteen years' worth of living in this same room.

He twists his graduation cap in his hand, knowing he'll regret the wrinkles he's put in it later.

Blaine watches as Kurt sets down the duster with surprising care before coming to kneel behind him, "That was a very big sigh for someone about to start his new, amazing engaged life in New York City in the morning." he teases.

"I think it's just finally hitting me, you know?"

"What do you mean?"

"I know I'll be back someday. I mean, we'll be back over Christmas and during our breaks and we'll probably even sleep in this room. In this bed. But... This is the last time it'll be _home_." He looks around his room, at the bare walls and the empty dressers and the generic sheets on his bed and eighteen years' worth of trophies and books and other belongings scattered about that had been deemed unnecessary to his new life in a new city, and purses his lips against the emotions pressing at him from all sides.

There are hands at his shoulders then, Kurt's nimble fingers working at a knot at the base of his neck, "Is that such a bad thing?" he questions quietly. There's no judgement in his voice, just genuine curiosity.

"No, no!" he reassures quickly, leaning back into the touch as his eyes slip closed, "It's just feels like... It's silly. Never mind."

"It's not silly."

"It's just... _You're_ my home." Blaine says, sighing as Kurt replaces his hands with his lips, tracing the line of his spine up his neck in a way that feels more reassuring than sensual, "But this place saw everything. I grew up here. This was my first day of kindergarten and junior high and high school... Three times over. This is where I finally worked up the courage to come out to myself. And where I came out to Cooper. This is where I spent my two months in bed after Sadie Hawkins, and where I first put on the Dalton blazer, and where I decided to transfer to McKinley. This is where we had our first time."

Kurt smiles against the back of his neck, "And our second time. _And_ our third time. And our -"

"- Okay, okay, yes." Blaine laughs, interrupting with a wave of his hand, "But can you blame me? I didn't want to get caught having sex at your house. I was kind of terrified of your dad after that whole '_Hey, Mr. Hummel! You should give your son the sex talk then I'm going to ask him out a week later!_' thing."

"Mm. And you should have been. He'll be telling that story at our wedding, sweetie."

"And it still won't be nearly as embarrassing as Cooper's speech will manage to be."

Kurt hooks his chin over Blaine's shoulder, grinning when he leans back against him, "My bet is still on him pointing for effect five times during his speech."

"You're being much too generous to him."

"I know." Predicting the speeches of their inevitable wedding guests had become something of a pastime over the last month of late night phone calls before bed. They haven't quite decided if Rachel or Cooper's will be worse, "But I still don't think I understand."

It takes him a minute, mulling over his thoughts silently as he tugs at the tassels on his graduation cap, "I have so many memories here. And I know I'll be back someday, but it won't be the same. This place will be the same, but I won't be. _We_ won't be. It's scary. We'll never be in this moment again. After we load up those boxes and pull out of the driveway in the morning, everything changes. Not everything here was great, but it was all I knew. When we come back here, will I still be able to look at all of that the same?"

"Of course not." Kurt's reply is so simple, so matter-of-fact, that it makes Blaine pause just long enough for him to succeed in tugging the graduation cap from his grasp and set it gently off to the side, "Everyone's scared of growing up. I was. God, do you remember what I was like last year? I was a terror. But... That's what memories are, Blaine. You'll always have these. Sure, things will change the minute we walk out of that door in the morning, but it'll be for the better. You keep moving forward, and you keep those memories with you. And... You build new memories. And you take those with you, too. I felt the same way. It killed me to leave everyone here. But I built new memories in New York, and then I came back here, and it didn't seem like such a bad thing that everything had changed. That's growing up."

Blaine gives a wet laugh, blinking against the tears that have been threatening to fall for the past few hours, "You're always right, you know that?"

"Of course I am." Kurt grins, pushing himself to his feet and pulling Blaine up with him, "We're going to New York in the morning, and we'll be different people when we come back. But that's because we're going to build a whole lifetime's worth of memories there, and it's all just going to build on what you're bringing with you from this room, and this house, and this town. We're going to grow up. Together."

He hears his mother calling to them from the kitchen, announcing the arrival of their pizzas, and he twists to press a kiss to Kurt's mouth, quick and off-centered and wet with the remnants of his tears, "I love you. And I can't wait to start my life in New York with you."

"And I love you. Now let's go make a few more memories before I get you the hell out of this place."


End file.
